Dramatic film offering instruction in basic social graces.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: Coronet Instructional Films
Sponsor: N/A
Audio/Visual: Sd, B&W
Keywords: Social guidance; Social guidance: Etiquette; Teenagers

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: bestpbx - - June 17, 2009
Subject: Kill Bill
Bill needs Uma Thurmond to get hold of his rude rear-end.
That will make him be nice, hmmmmm????

Reviewer: autoguy - - May 20, 2006
Subject: Bah, humbug!
Martha's "hard times" party? Bring Carol? BLAAAR! BAH! Easy Bill, watch those psychotic episodes! It's 1951, and "Ice Pick Wally" Freeman is touring around doing prefrontal lobotomies! Watch it buddy, there's a ward room door at the local nut-hut waiting for your name tag. Just keep talking to that imaginary voice you're hearing pal, and don't say you haven't been warned! Bill seems a little crabby does he? Doesn't think he has to be polite to anyone, huh? Calm down Bill, or "Mr Thorozine" will do it for you. Geez Bill, you don't listen so well do you? Maybe a few 450 volt bilateral shock treatments to fry your noggin will bring you around? Be nice at the party Bill. Being a twisted sociopath is no way to make friends, and letting them see you talk to yourself is NOT helping! Yes Bill, you're starting to come around now. These new antidepressant drug compounds work wonders, and now you seem like a different person all the sudden. Good for you! Never forget Bill, outpatient beats inpatient any day!

Reviewer: ERD - - April 24, 2006
Subject: "Social Courtesy" good film for youngsters
Social Courtesy is a cute little film made in 1951 for younsters showing how courtesy can make a person more popular and happier. A little dated now, but well made for its time. Good script, acting & direction.

Reviewer: Spuzz - - June 8, 2005
Subject: Or "How to behave at the Homeless people party"
This is a great film, because it features one of the more "what the hell am I in this dreck?" actors who is probably the first person to realize that these films are going to age really fast and it's going to look bad on his resume. In any case, the story: Bill is an outcast who doesnt really want to go to a party, the unseen narrator agrees to accompany Bill and fix any faux pas that he does at the party (sort of like the fairy in Cindy Goes To A Party). This film does a neat little trick whenever Bill does something wrong, there's a flash, and a picture appears explaining that this is a picture of what not to do, the narrator rewinds the scene and forces Bill to do it right. Sort of like the premise to 'Groundhog Day'. In any case, he winds up having a good time and everyone likes him, even though again, he looks like he wants to be someplace else LOL This is a MUST SEE on this site!

Reviewer: Camper - - February 1, 2003
Subject: Re: Shotlist
Re: Even the party is surreal. Signs such as "hobo jungle" and "bum's rest" (over the couch) hang on the wall, which is spotted with weird, unexplained stains.

As the clip explains, it's a "hard times" party. And those "weird, unexplained stains" are shadows of the tin-can decorations strung across the ceiling.

Shotlist

Presents information on specific social graces and shows how to make them a natural part of daily activities. Illustrates that getting along in social groups merely requires the use of everyday courtesy.
Ken Smith sez: Sour-puss "Bill" is invited to a "hard times" party with his girlfriend Carol, but he believes that social courtesy is "old fashioned." Whoa, just a minute there, says the feisty interactive narrator, who soon sets Bill on a proper course. Bill takes the narrator in stride, as he does being teleported through space and backward in time (repeatedly) in this very bizarre Coronet production.
"Let's take a picture of this situation," the narrator says as a strobe flashes from behind the camera and the scene we just saw is transformed into a photo on a wall in the next scene. "You'd better back up and start all over again. Maybe you'd better try to be more FRIENDLY this time." Bill beckons the invisible narrator closer so that he can discuss things in private, and the camera obligingly dollies in while the other teens at the party remain utterly oblivious. "You discourage others when they want to be friendly," the narrator scolds. "You're supposed to rise when an adult speaks to you; everybody knows that." "Come on, Bill. Sit up! That's a chair, not a bed." You have to wonder why Bill, who is so rude to his friends, puts up with this invisible nagging narrator (you also have to wonder why he has any friends, period).
Even the party is surreal. Signs such as "hobo jungle" and "bum's rest" (over the couch) hang on the wall, which is spotted with weird, unexplained stains. One of the girls, suddenly aware that Bill is having a solo conversation, asks "Are you talking to yourself?" which, in the early fifties, was much worse than talking to an invisible narrator.
"Learn from watching others," the narrator concludes. "You can even get a book on courtesy from the library. Be friendly. Thoughtful. YOU'LL get along!" It works; the mom chaperon exclaims "Isn't that the boy who used to be so rude?" and Bill is accorded the ultimate symbol of fifties' conformist success; he's invited to another party. "Those changes made a big difference, didn't they!" he exclaims in wonder. "Social courtesy DOES pay! Thanks!!!"
Certainly one of the most inventive Coronet films ever made. Good camera work by Bruce Colling.

SOCIAL GRACES COURTESY MANNERS COSTUME PARTIES SPILLING FOOD FAUX PAS INTRODUCTIONS DATES TEENAGERS ADOLESCENTS SURREALISM WEIRDNESS STRANGENESS
Danger Lurks Safety
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